National Harbor, Maryland (CNN) – On the heels of a rousing morning address to the Conservative Political Action Conference that brought a sleepy audience to its feet many times over, Texas Gov. Rick Perry had a bounce in his step.

He hosted a meet-and-greet with conservative activists, young and old, in a corner room at the Gaylord National Resort outside Washington. The line snaked out the door and down the hall. He crossed paths with major conservative donors.

His advisers, meanwhile, scanned their phones, happily re-tweeting favorable headlines out of his CPAC remarks. One aide was quietly singing the lyrics to “Happy,” the bouncy Pharrell Williams tune that was nominated for an Academy Award.

Perry’s speech to conservatives here, thick with anti-Obama rhetoric, conveyed the kind of roaring energy that he sorely lacked during his disastrous 2012 presidential bid, a campaign faltered for many reasons: hubris, lack of preparation, feuding staff and some questionable policy pronouncements. But Perry was also suffering from the lingering effects of a 2011 spinal surgery that left him moody, lethargic and often in pain.

A very different Rick Perry showed up at CPAC.

“It helps when you’re healthy,” the governor said in an interview with CNN. “When you’re healthy you generally perform better. It took me a year, a year and half, to get healthy,” he said, making note of a second medical procedure he underwent in 2012 to repair his right clavicle.

Echoing comments he made the previous day on CNN’s “The Lead With Jake Tapper,” Perry called his 2012 bid “a humbling experience.”

That campaign, and its spectacular flameout, is still fresh in the minds of the Republican donors and activists evaluating the early 2016 field. Many of them remain skeptical of Perry’s ability to make a second run at the GOP nomination, even though he’s decided against another gubernatorial run in Texas and is actively laying behind-the-scenes groundwork for another presidential bid.

Perry said voters are more forgiving.

“I have been taught to judge people on how they perform after they have fallen down and after they have failed,” he said. “And how you come back from that. So I hope people will look at me and say, ‘You know what? We will give you a second chance.’”

Perry paused, not wanting to get too far ahead of himself with a reporter.

“If that’s what I decide to do on the presidential thing,” he quickly added. “Don’t take that as anything other than it is an option. I am happy with where I am in life. I have a 9-month old grand baby.”

Perry insisted his focus is on electing Republican governors in 2014, as part of his role on the Republican Governors Association’s executive committee.

Perry said he’s pleased with the group’s fundraising pace this year under New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the current RGA chairman who also happens to be a potential rival for the GOP nomination in 2016. Perry and Christie have a well-documented chilly relationship, but he betrayed no ill-will toward his blue state peer.

Perry, however, gave credit to his fellow governors and previous RGA chairmen - including former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, and himself - for transforming the committee into a financial powerhouse. His message was clear: The RGA is bigger than just Chris Christie.

“All of us are out there raising money,” Perry said. “It’s always been a team effort. We have shown people that the Republican Governors Association is a really good investment and the return on that investment is good as any organization that’s out there.”

Perry also weighed in on Russia’s standoff with Ukraine, and President Obama’s handling of the geopolitical crisis. Like other Republicans, he accused Obama of “muddling” American foreign policy by mishandling events in Egypt and Iran, projecting an image of weakness abroad and indirectly giving Russian president Vladimir Putin a green light to move into Crimea.

“Nobody should be surprised that Putin is making these moves because there is substantially less respect for the United States than there was four years ago,” he said. “And no one should be surprised that Vladimir Putin is restructuring the old Russian empire. We shouldn’t be surprised at that. This guy was a former KGB operative.”

We are more popular today than under either bush, dream on fool. And for you rwnj laughing at Obama's misspell, at least he remembered everything, Perry is about two thirds there, now that's a brain ready to take on the world, yikes!

Cowboy Fonzie has about as much chance of winning a national election as the Koch brothers have of getting into heaven, which is to say, that needle ain't getting threaded.

March 7, 2014 01:41 pm at 1:41 pm |

Sniffit

"“All of us are out there raising money,”"

A/k/a "working the Koch brothers' yogurt pumps."

March 7, 2014 01:42 pm at 1:42 pm |

wwf

Yawn. Man people have went through a heck of a lot more than you did with clavicle. Took you a year and a half to get healthy? Give me a break. Guess when you loose, any excuse is better than admitting you were knocked out by a better person, which in the GOP is not saying much. Should give Mr. (I hurt) Perry some food for thought.

You can say "uppity" if you want. I promise you we know that's what you mean anyway.

March 7, 2014 01:51 pm at 1:51 pm |

Mr. Balls

If Perry is the GOP nominee they are doomed.

March 7, 2014 02:03 pm at 2:03 pm |

Bill

I guess this clown never got the memo that says you do not get a second chance to make a first impression. But by all means, proceed. If Perry gets the GOP nod, it will be another eight years that the GOP does not win the White House. Actually, they stand little chance regardless of who they nominate. Aqua Buddha, Rev. Cruz, Jabba the Hut? Not much of a bench folks.

Their only chance is to run Mitt again with Christy, whom anyone with half a brain knows will be exonerated. Even if evidence is found, it will mysteriously disappear. The GOP and their money owns this country. Between gerrymandering, voter suppression, changing voting laws and voting machines, they can do it. Look how close Mitt came in 2012. Do not underestimate these guys, they want to win and with the MSM carrying their water for them, just don't be surprised.

The GOP can lie, cheat and steal and the MSM will pretend they didn't.

March 7, 2014 02:30 pm at 2:30 pm |

GOP = Greed Over People

“All of us are out there raising money,”

But, are all of them doing it, on their knees, in front of the Koch brothers?

March 7, 2014 02:39 pm at 2:39 pm |

Rudy NYC

If Gov. Perry wants Republicans to give him a second chance, I think they should give him that chance. Tee Hee.

March 7, 2014 02:52 pm at 2:52 pm |

Jeff Magnus

Has he grown a brainstem since the last time?

March 7, 2014 02:54 pm at 2:54 pm |

Leigh

Why shouldn't Putin defy Obama? Republicans do it loudly, every day, and for no particular reason except that they despise him. Monkey see, monkey do.